McClean and O'Neill escape world cup bans

James McClean and Martin O’Neill have escaped with nothing worse than a slap on the wrist from FIFA for the critical comments they made about the match referee after the 1-1 draw with Austria in the World Cup qualifier at the Aviva in June, writes Liam Mackey.

O’Neill had described the Spanish official’s performance in the game as “poor” while McClean went further in a post-match television interview by suggesting that David Fernandez Borbalan was Austria’s “12th man”.